merit
Farmer-founded in 2014, Tractor Beverages is the first all-organic beverage solution in foodservice, on a mission to create a cleaner, healthier planet one drink at a time. After some early traction, including a partnership with Chipotle, Tractor needed to find new ways to drive growth and awareness of their product. In particular, Tractor was struggling to get new B2B pouring partners (especially restaurant accounts) and consumers excited about the brand.
Tractor needed to convince pouring partners that they were offering something that new generations of consumers, especially Gen Z and young Millennials, were really looking for. In a modern beverage landscape run by industrial brands spending billions each year on advertising, Tractor would need to cut through culturally in order to lead the category.
Tractor partnered with our production arm to develop an integrated brand campaign that would plant a flag for better beverages and raise Tractor’s profile among younger consumers and in the beverage industry. They would also assert its role as the David against the Big Soda Goliaths and present a better way forward through organic choices at the beverage station.
Our campaign kicked off with a digital anthem video ‘Escape the Ordinary’. Research with Gen Z Tractor consumers revealed a key insight: they appreciated media that engages critically with cultural hotbuttons (ssustainability, wellness, big business) in unique, often irreverent ways and gravitated toward brands that did the same. We decided to lean into the tension between organic, pre-industrial food ideals and the rise of industrial food culture. We then developed an animated brand world reminiscent of popular cartoons to tell the story of an anthropomorphic cup looking for something different.
The spot follows the classic arc of a Hero’s Journey, as a sentient cup (‘Cuppy’) stands up against the big beverage industry monoliths. After awakening from a daydream, our hero cup appears in a dystopian landscape and soon devises a plan to rocket out of the homogenous cityscape dominated by a group of industrial drinks called the Glugopoly. In the conclusion, our hero cup escapes the Glugopoly and lands in an organic oasis filled with Tractor beverages and flying fruit. The video was soundtracked by a cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World,’ produced in close partnership with Valerie June. In addition to OLV, our campaign extended across paid social, outdoor, digital audio and experiential, including a partnership with the World Surf League.
As it was Tractor's first ever brand campaign, consumer awareness was our main KPI. We want our customer’s customers to be aware of and pick Tractor, when they have a choice. Over three months in market, we smashed all expectations, garnering 73 million views, 343 million impressions (with over 72,000 hours of the full 90’ spot being watched), and a 34% increase in social followers.
N/A
N/A
